Landscape dock port, smart bezel for iPad [patent watch]

Some Apple patents were made public this weekend giving possible hints at the the future of the iPad, include a landscape dock port and "smart-bezel".

The first one shows a second 30-pin dock connector on the left side for landscape docking. I'm sure this will make the keyboard dock and bluetooth keyboards even easier to use with some apps.

The second patent is for something called "Smart Bezel" which isnt really described well but by the pictures it looks like you touch a part of the bezel and and you can assign that part to a particular action.

Neither of these are bold re-designs, but are they features you want to see in a refresh? Oh, and let us know if you think that's a front-facing camera in the smart-bezel illustration after the break, or just the ambient light sensor...

Sounds like the have other things in mind with a side connector. The keyboard is wireless. I also agree, there needs to be across the devices connectors. What good Is having say guitar jack, and now it want fit an iPhone 4 or iPod touch 4. You have to wait for the company to make a second version to connect. There are other products out there with the same problem. Back to the subject, if this iPad was a reality now, guess you would have to buy a new case/cover. Pretty soon there will be so many holes, and cutouts on a cover, the thing will never really fit right.

I definitely think that's a camera, considering the placement and size/shape. I'm a little cofised about the smart bezel though. Why in the world would it be necessary?
Possibly a "buttonless" volume control feature?

I believe they might be implementing some sort of hot corner system for iPad, similar to hot corners for Apple computers. This might control multitasking features that show a preview of the running app instead of just a picture of the app.

That is not a smart button corner. That design drawing is clearly a blowup of a new construction technique... besides thats what a "bezel" is. This is a new design for the ipad body... and it's flat and has the same metal frame as the iPhone4.

I don't see where people are getting the "this is the same frame as the iPhone 4" from. The designs above look identical to the current iPad, no difference except for the side dock connector.
Oh, and that thing that "looks" like a camera, it's the light sensor that is currently on the iPad as well. Same exact placement. We've already gone thru this before.

As much as I like the ipad, I'm happy I am waiting for the second gen. I need at least 512 mbytes of ram, I want 1 gig. And I need the camera on the front, don't really care about the back but it's on the other two so why not the big cahoona.